Space Services to launch ashes of those without deep...

February 21, 2006

Space Services to launch ashes of those without deep pockets CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Scotty will be blasted into space -- not beamed up -- and Gordo is returning for his third flight. The planned launch sometime in March of a rocket carrying the ashes of actor James Doohan, who played chief engineer Montgomery Scott on "Star Trek," and Mercury program astronaut Gordon Cooper will give a fitting send-off to two men who helped popularize human space exploration. The craft also will hold the ashes of 185 others, including a telephone technician, a nurse and a college student. Their families paid $995 to $5,300 for the flight, being conducted by one of a handful of growing businesses hoping to give a space experience to the common folk. "It broadens the market, which is important to us because our whole business plan is about getting more people access to space," said Harvin Moore of Space Services Inc. of Houston, which is sponsoring the ashes flight. "Space needs to be affordable for all in some way." Along with these services, space tourism businesses hope to send customers into suborbital space at a cost of $25,000 to $250,000 a person, far less than the $20 million businessman Gregory Olsen paid Russia last fall for a ride to the International Space Station. Richard Branson's company, Virgin Galactic, already has 100 people who have paid $200,000 apiece for flights, which the company has said it hopes to begin in 2008. Colorado-based Beyond-Earth Enterprises plans to launch a rocket on a brief flight in October with hair samples or fingernail clippings sent by people who paid $34.95 for the "DNA kit" package. The company will also transport science experiments -- no animals allowed -- for $2,500. So far, the response to Beyond-Earth's services has been in the low hundreds, said CEO Joe Latrell.